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U.S. to Provide Egypt With State-of-the-Art Weaponry
WASHINGTON, Nov. 27 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - U.S. President George W. Bush's administration is planning to provide Egypt with highly accurate surface-to-surface missiles - and four patrol boats from which to fire them - in a $400 million arms deal, the U.S. daily the
Washington Post reported Tuesday.
The proposal has alarmed some of Israel's supporters on Capitol Hill, and several are trying to block the transfer, said the paper.
"In a classified memorandum sent to Congress on November 2, the administration notified lawmakers it intends to provide Egypt with 53 Harpoon Block II missiles, a satellite-guided weapon described by manufacturer Boeing Co. as 'the world's most successful anti-ship missile'," the paper said.
The missiles reportedly are accurate to within 30 feet and can be used against shore-based targets. They would be mounted on four "fast missile patrol craft" built by Halter Marine Inc. of Gulfport, Mississippi.
The United States gives Egypt $1.3 billion in military aid annually - a legacy of the 1978 Camp David peace accords between Egypt and Israel - so in that respect, the proposed arms transfer is nothing out of the ordinary.
But according to the Washington Post, the Harpoon deal is proving more troublesome than most. With Arab-Israeli relations under strain and American Jewish groups accusing Egypt of insufficiently supporting the war on terrorism, some key lawmakers are reluctant to provide the country with sophisticated technology they say could blunt Israel's "qualitative" military edge.
Earlier this month, Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-DE), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, wrote Secretary of State Colin L. Powell to ask him "to provide a rationale for making the sale at this time," according to Biden's spokesman, Norm Kurz.
Senator Jesse Helms (R-NC), the ranking Republican on the committee, also expressed concern about the proposed transfer, congressional aides said, as has Rep. Tom Lantos (D-CA), the ranking Democrat on the House International Relations Committee.
"A stable and prosperous Egypt is in our interest, while an arms race between Israel and Egypt is not," Lantos said in an interview.
"The State Department is sort of following a pattern of escalating the level of arms sales to Egypt, which in turn will mean escalating the number of arms sales and the sophistication to Israel."
Spokesmen for the State Department, White House and Pentagon declined to comment on the administration's proposal, citing its classified nature. But a U.S. government official familiar with its details defended the plan, saying the missiles would enhance Egypt's ability to protect the Suez Canal, an important transit point for American commercial and military ships.
"They've been a strategic partner with us," the official said. "The administration would not recommend selling a weapons system if they thought it would undermine Israeli security, and we don't think this one does."
Congress has long accepted the massive U.S. military and economic aid program to Egypt as the price of stability in the Middle East. The program runs at about $2 billion a year and includes about $700 million in economic assistance.
"The purpose of the aid is to reward Egypt not only for becoming the first Arab state to make peace with Israel but also for supporting U.S. efforts to broker a broader Middle East settlement," said the paper.
The aid has transformed the Egyptian military, which has junked much of its outmoded Soviet equipment in favor of F-16 fighter aircraft, M1A1 Abrams tanks, Patriot anti-missile systems and other state-of-the-art American weaponry. Israel has long accepted the arrangement with little public complaint, perhaps because it receives even more U.S. aid, the
Post said.
The proposed Harpoon transfers have aroused particular concern on Capitol Hill. While Egypt already has an earlier version of the missile, the Harpoon Block II is the latest model.
It is equipped with a 500-pound warhead that "delivers lethal firepower against a wide variety of land-based targets, including coastal defense sites, surface-to-air missile sites, exposed aircraft, port-industrial facilities and ships in port," according to Boeing promotional literature.
Israel opposes the deal but has decided against doing "anything high-profile" to prevent it, according to an Israeli official in Washington. "In the post-September 11 world, we understand there are larger strategic interests," the official said.
"Having said that, if we are asked for our opinion, there are concerns in Israel. In numbers and equipment, we're always outgunned, so all we have in Israel is the qualitative edge."
Israel's concern is shared by major American Jewish groups, including the Zionist Organization of America, which is lobbying members of Congress to block not only the Harpoon deal but all military aid to Cairo, said Morton Klein, the group's president.
"Who is [Egypt] planning to go to war against?" he asked yesterday. "The only country we can think of is Israel."
That argument has found an especially sympathetic ear in Biden, who declared himself "proud to be a Zionist" during a speech to Klein's organization in Philadelphia on November 4, according to a news release from the group.
Nabil Fahmy, Egypt's ambassador to Washington, said, "We are a nation with long maritime borders and significant port facilities, which are used fundamentally for peaceful purposes but which need to be protected." The Harpoons, he added, "will not be used against anybody who does not attack us."
However, the deal still has a few steps before going through. Under existing rules, the State Department memo alerting Congress to the proposed Harpoon deal - classified "confidential" - triggered a 20-day comment period. If the administration decides to proceed with the deal, it will publicly notify Congress.
Lawmakers then would have 30 days to pass a resolution opposing the arms sale, but the president could veto the resolution. Congress therefore would need a two-thirds majority to block a proposed sale or transfer - a level of opposition that has never been reached, congressional aides said.
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